The Ubuntu Edge Indiegogo campaign is slowly failing

The Ubuntu Edge is a great idea, but Canonical’s Indiegogo goal is monstrous. That $32 million target is a big ask of consumers, and while many jumped on board early, the project has all but shorted out. Short of a miracle, crowdfunding the Ubuntu Edge just isn’t going to happen.

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Initial support was phenomenal, with about 10% of their goal being raised in the first 24 hours. Early success like that can always be attributed to the core support of your goal or platform. Continued success is only achieved by mass appeal, and it seems the Ubuntu phone just doesn’t have that.

At this point, the project has raised just over $7.5 million. With 22 days to go, Canonical needs just over $24.4 million. That’s about $1.1 million a day to meet the goal, and with the flow of backers slowly dwindling, it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see an Ubuntu phone crowdfunded.

Let’s not damn Canonical, though. The Edge is a really great concept, and they deserve credit for going full steam at this via Indiegogo. Even though $32 million is a huge goal, and probably has a lot to do with why support has waned, it was refreshing to see a company that could easily source capital offering it to us first. If anything can be said of Ubuntu at this juncture, it’s that even in attempting to bring a device to market, they embraced the open source spirit that got them there.